Dirtbag is a mutant mole who first appears in the original cartoon episode Planet of the Turtleloids, Part 1. One day Shredder intended to create new mutants accomplices and placed a gorilla and a lion from the New York Zoo under a Mutagen dispenser. But the alien anthropomorphic turtle Kerma of the Turtleoids from the planet Shell-Ri-La freed these animals, while Rocksteady and Bebop freed a bull and mole who took their place. The bull hit the dispenser with his horns, and the mutagen was poured over them. This resulted in the bull and the mole assuming anthropomorphic forms.